On Fables and Nuanced Charts

While data visualizations appear to present information objectively, they are laden with assumptions. Some of those assumptions are held by the chart maker, and others are held by you.

Pandemic Prevention Mini-Issue

Is That DNA Dangerous?

Tessa Alexanian & Max Langenkamp

Synthetic DNA poses biosecurity risks that curated databases and screening algorithms can minimize. Here’s how they work now and how they could improve.

Pandemic Prevention Mini-Issue

Day Zero Antivirals for Future Pandemics

Medicines modeled off the innate immune system have the best chance of protecting us during the next viral outbreak.

Pandemic Prevention Mini-Issue

Measuring the Black Death

Reports suggest that between 40 and 60 percent of the population died during the bubonic plague that swept through Europe in the mid-1300s. What accounts for this wide range of estimates?

Pandemic Prevention Mini-Issue

Editor's Note

Announcing a special mini-issue devoted to biotechnology's role in pandemic prevention.

Meet the Flower Designer Who Built a Laboratory In His Home

Sebastian Cocioba, a vocal advocate for amateur science, built a home laboratory from spare parts and second-hand machines purchased on eBay.

Inside the Laboratory for Extraordinary Microbes

Cultivarium, a small nonprofit, is building tools to grow and engineer peculiar organisms—and then giving their discoveries away for free.